This is about the things I see and wonder about or in which I find humor or human grace or may seem odd enough to be worth mention...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

O CANADA !

Reamus is
off in the morning on his next excellent adventure. In the hope of missing of
all tornadoes and as many hail storms as possible, I head north to visit our
North American cousins on Valium, the good people of Alberta, Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and the far western reach of Ontario. With luck and my usual dose
of superstition, I will exit their country---assuming Homeland Security will
let me—in Minnesota.

La
Coachasita is breathing heavily in the drive, straining at the brakes to be left
to run free. She bears all the foodstuffs and goods for the journey, at the
ready as always despite our collective increasing ages and her near 150,000 miles. I,
of course, have many more than that, so while she gets no sympathy from me I will treat
her gently in the hope that her journey will be trouble free.

We will
spend a few days in Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks on the way north and
be on the Salmon River for the Memorial Day Weekend.

There was a
book to finish and all the grinding clerical work entailed in publishing and
some other issues keeping me here longer than usual this year. I believe it was
the first Mother’s Day I have spent at home in the past ten years. Now ready,
we, all my inanimate travelling companions and I will see what and whom we can
find that will awe and amuse us as we go around the next bend in the road and
find the unexpected waiting there.

We will
leave sea level here in Carlsbad, the paradise by the sea now resplendent in
roses and wonderful smell of blooming jasmine, and ascend to 8000 feet at
Jacobs Lake in the very northern part of Arizona. From there it is a short 30
miles to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We remember it from a few years ago
in the fall when we visited two days before they closed it for the winter and
we left in the midst of a snowstorm. We expect a more temperate welcome this
trip although the campground only opened Monday of this week. Bryce and Zion
Parks will be next. Then north in Nevada this time for a different view of the climb
up the map to Idaho, allowing too for a few ghost town visits along the way. I will reach
the valley of the Salmon River, the towns of Challis and Salmon, and stay at
North Fork Idaho for four days of what I hope will be continued good weather.
The area has been in the 80’s most all of this week, although there is a certainty
in me that it will change soon.

As always,
at least until go into the black hole of communications on the northern side of
the border where data transmission is more expensive than gasoline for me and
my Verizon, I will try to bring you some of the sights and as many thoughts as
I gather worth repeating. We hope to learn much about the beginnings of the
Royal Mounted Police, the place to which Sitting Bull repaired after the
nastiness in the Black Hills with General Custer, and why the Canadians are
paying three times the market value for their houses these days. The itinerary
is vague except to be easterly. There are a host of Provincial Parks to visit,
free ranging Bison to chase, and lots and lots of prairie grass.

Once back in
the states we will stay in the north through the country of the Lakota Sioux
and back through more of Utah and Nevada on the way to the most unpopulated and
remote Northeast corner of California and the gold country of Placerville,
Alturas, and Susanville.

I am looking
forward to the new places and the chance to re-visit others. As always, I hope
you will ride along.

I have always loved the idea of going to Canada, but I have actually stepped foot in Canada only twice, and even then it was just barely. The first time was driving from Niagara Falls to Buffalo on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. A whole half-hour in our great neighbor to the north. The other time was an overnight stay in Victoria, BC in 1984 when we visited Butchart Gardens. I treated Mexico the same way, walking across the Rio Grande on a bridge from Brownsville, TX, buying a few souvenirs in Matamoros, and then walking back to the good old U. S. of A.I don't even think it was a half hour that time.

All this to say I hope you have a wonderful trip. I will be traveling with you in spirit. I love Canada.